Thursday, November 26, 2015

In 1899, in the North Yorkshire market town of Thorpe Morton, a tragedy occurred; 59 people died at the market hall whilst celebrating Christmas Eve, many of them children. One hundred years on and the spirits of the deceased are restless still, ‘haunting’ the community, refusing to let them forget.

In 1999, psychic investigators Theo Lawson and Ness Patterson are called in to help, sensing immediately on arrival how weighed down the town is. Quickly they discover there’s no safe haven. The past taints everything.

Hurtling towards the anniversary as well as a new millennium, their aim is to move the spirits on, to cleanse the atmosphere so everyone – the living and the dead – can start again. But the spirits prove resistant and soon Theo and Ness are caught up in battle, fighting against something that knows their deepest fears and can twist them in the most dangerous of ways.

They’ll need all their courage to succeed and the help of a little girl too – a spirit who didn’t die at the hall, who shouldn’t even be there…

As Theo turned round to face the double doors, she had a feeling that someone - something - was rushing at her, as fleetingly as whatever had been in Adelaide's house. Refusing to let fear get a stranglehold, she turned back, her aim to confront it. A black wisp of a shape, like wood smoke, sideswiped her, before fading into nothing. Staring after it, wondering what it was, something else caught her attention. At the far end of the second room was something more substantial: a little girl, staring at her.

Theo's eyes widened. "Oh darling, darling," she whispered. She took a step forwards, tried to remember the names of the children on the list from earlier: Alice, Helen, Bessie, Adelaide's ancestor, Ellen Corsby perhaps. Which one was she?

She inched closer still. "Darling, your name, tell me what it is."

The little girl's arms moved upwards, she stretched them out, her manner beseeching although she remained mute. Theo tried again, told the child her own name.

"It's short for Theodora. I bet you're called something pretty."

The girl had a dress on; long, brownish, a course material - linen perhaps? Nothing special but if it was her party dress then maybe it was special to her. Her boots were brown too - lace ups, sturdy looking. She was around eight or nine but it was hard to tell. She could have been older just small for her age. Her hair was brown and tangled; she had a mane of it. Everything about her seemed to be brown or sepia, maybe sepia was the right word, as though she'd stepped out of an old photograph.

"I'm here now, sweetheart, I've come to help. You've been here for such a long time. Too long. You need to go to the light, go home, rest awhile."

Up closer, Theo could read her eyes. The longing in them stirred her pity.

"Let me help you," Theo persisted, her voice catching in her throat. As glorious as the other side might be, she still felt it unfair to be felled at such a young age. Often this was a good existence too and it deserved to be experienced fully.

She was close now, so close and still her arms were outstretched.

Harriet - the name presented itself whole in her mind.

"Your name's Harriet. Is that correct? It's lovely, it suits you."

Was that a smile on the child's lips, the beginnings of trust? Soon she'd be able to reach out and touch her. What would she feel like? Cold? Ethereal?

"Darling, I'm here," she repeated, no more than a foot between them. "I'm here."

Joy surged - one spirit had come forward - it was an encouraging start.

Just before their hands touched everything changed. Hope and joy were replaced with confusion as something sour - fetid almost - rose up, making her feel nauseous.

"Don't be afraid," Theo implored. Yet there was nothing but fear in her eyes now. No, not fear, that was too tame a word - terror.

"I'm not here to harm you," she continued. "I'm here to help."

As the words left her mouth, other hands appeared behind the child, a whole sea of them - disembodied hands that clawed at her, forcing her backwards.

"No!" Theo shouted. "Stop it. Leave her alone!"

But it was no use. Her words faded as the girl did. She'd been torn away, recaptured; the one who'd dared to step forward. Theo could feel sweat break out on her forehead, her hands were clammy. She clutched at her chest, her breathing difficult suddenly, laboured. Her heart had been problematic of late, a result of the pounds she'd piled on. She must go to the doctor to get some medication. Struggling to gain control, it took a few moments, perhaps a full minute, before her heart stopped hammering. And when it did, she remembered something else. The girl's eyes - her sweet, brown, trusting eyes - when the expression changed in them they hadn't been looking at her, they'd been looking beyond her. Was it at the thing that sideswiped her? Theo couldn't be certain. She wasn't certain either if that 'thing' was a spirit or much less than that - something with no soul, but with an appetite, an extreme appetite: a craving. Something, she feared, was insatiable.

Brighton-based author of paranormal fiction, including UK Amazon Bestseller, Psychic Surveys Book One: The Haunting of Highdown Hall. Psychic Surveys Book Two: Rise to Me, is also available and due out in November 2015 is Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story - the prequel to the Psychic Surveys series. She is also the author of Jessamine, an atmospheric psychological romance set in the Highlands of Scotland and described as a 'Wuthering Heights for the 21st century.'

A monster roams the halls of Soothing Hills Asylum. Three girls dead. 29 is endowed with the curse…or gift of perception. She hears messages in music, sees lyrics in paintings. And the corn. A lifetime asylum resident, the orchestral corn music is the only constant in her life.

Mason, a new, kind orderly, sees 29 as a woman, not a lunatic. And as his belief in her grows, so does her self- confidence. That perhaps she might escape, might see the outside world.

But the monster has other plans. The missing girl's share one common thread...each was twenty-nine's cell mate.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

What will happen when two shifters fight — over a love that has been ordained, and one that is forbidden?

Jace moved in with Fiona and her father when she was fourteen. Tall, lean, and hotter every day, he caught Fiona’s eye on day one, and she has had a crush ever since. The problem is, Jace has never looked at her as anything but a friend.

On Fiona’s sixteenth birthday, her dad announces she is going to mate a shifter she has never met when she turns twenty-one. Zane, though cute and muscled, is arrogant, older, and not at all her type.

One night, Jace finally sees Fi for the woman she has become. In a moment of weakness, he succumbs to her request for “just one kiss.” A mate’s addictive taste is something neither Jace nor Fiona can deny.

Caught by a secret past, Jace believes he will never deserve a woman like Fi. However, Fiona harbors a deep dark secret of her own, a secret that may change all of their lives.

Pepper Valley: A town where shifters, vampires and other creatures are a part of society.

“There is a jackass that my father promised me to. He’s not my mate.” Zane had shoved his tongue in her mouth enough times for her to know the taste of him wasn’t pleasing or addictive like a mate’s would be. She wanted to taste Jace now, just once. “I hate him.”

“I know.” He took her face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “But your father would absolutely kill me.” He chuckled against her skin.

“One kiss, Jace. Just one,” she begged, turning her face to meet his. Her hands slid over his as he still cupped her face delicately.

“One,” he breathed into her mouth for a moment as if deciding their future, and then his mouth claimed hers, hard and fast. His fingers slid into her curls and he tugged her head closer.

AUTHOR BIO

Hi! I'm an author from the Midwestern United States. I'm an avid reader of anything romance! I've worked as a travel agent, nursing assistant, and a paralegal before chasing my dream of full-time writing. I love to travel, swim, cook, and I'm more than a little addicted to a certain social media website...

Currently, I write paranormal and science-fiction romance. My plan is to branch out in several romance sub-genres, but my books will always end in the infamous Happily Ever After.

Always hot, always sexy, my male characters will protect their women at all costs, and my female characters will be...I like to call it "feisty." I believe every story and character should be unique, and it's something I always strive to do.

Reading should be an escape from everyday life, so I hope you enjoy my version of a vacation for you!

Fun Facts about me:
1. I love birds! I have one (a parakeet).
2. I'm double-jointed, which led to teasing as a kid (which I also found funny)!
3. I have a shoe addiction! Mainly embellished flip-flops, but other kinds too (not heals, I'd break my ankles).
4. I missed a college 4.0 GPA in the very last semester when one professor gave me a B (still upset about that!)!
5. I am very OCD about certain things (see #6).
6. I have an extensive DVD/BluRay collection and it has to be kept in alphabetical order!
7. My favorite vacations involve a cruise. I've been on 15 so far!
8. I'm quiet and sort of shy until I get to know a person.
9. I'm quick witted and believe sarcasm is my best friend.
10. I hate hot weather.

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